Flash
by and if I dream
Summary: Percy's quite attractive, although he doesn't know it, and this leads to a fair few interested people (who all forget to turn off their flash). [Percabeth]


The first time it happened, he was perched on a uncomfortable seat in the waiting area of a posh restaurant in Manhattan. Percy was tapping his shined shoes on the hardwood floors, leant over with his forearms on his thighs. The slight roil of nerves in the pit of his stomach were due to some mix of the fact he, who could be accurately described as a Harbinger of Destruction, was alone in a very expensive restaurant, and his date was missing. Oh, and the fitted dark grey suit he was wearing wasn't helping, what with his normal outfits of shorts and a t-shirt. To stop his tapping, which was starting to garner irritated looks from a couple sitting nearby, he instead pulled his ballpoint pen out and let it spin between his fingers. The rhythm, a steady _tick-tap_ , was soothing, but he kept biting at his lower lip anyway. Damn the rule against cell phones for demigods, where was Annabeth?

The door banged open behind him and he practically leapt from his seat. Just as he did, a bright flash came from the corner, but he ignored it to instead face his girlfriend, who was looking rather bedraggled.

"Percy," she gasped out when he wrapped his arms around her. "Thank gods you're here already." Annabeth leaned into him for a moment before placing her hands on his chest and gently shoving him away, still breathing rapidly. He glanced up and down her body, but there was no obvious major injuries, just some stains and tearing on the hem of her dress. The hand reaching for his ambrosia fell from the inside pocket of his jacket.

"What?" he asked, letting his confused tone ask the real questions- _Are you alright? You're sure? Like one hundred percent sure? I'm worried about you, I'm glad you're here._

Annabeth tugged at his free hand, which she had looped her fingers through tightly, letting her cold fingers press into his.

"Ah, tiny problem one block up, and by tiny-" But before she could finish her sentence, the prim and proper maitre'd appeared at their side.

"Miss, sir, will you be taking your table?" _Whoops,_ Percy thought. When he looked up, half the nearby patrons were staring unabashedly at them. He had nearly totally forgotten that they were in a very nice restaurant, and Annabeth's entrance had _not_ added to the atmosphere. At his side, she offered the maitre'd a winning smile.

"Thank you, but we've a bit of an emergency to get to!" she told him, falsely cheery. Before the poor man could reply, she had hustled him out the door and they were racing down the street. About a block away from the restaurant, Annabeth paused, near an alley entrance, and dissolved into giggles.

Oblivious as ever, Percy stared at her for a moment, leaning casually on the brick wall behind them.

"Ah, Annabeth?"

She looked up at him for a moment before dissolving into another fit of laughter, wrapping her hands around her stomach and folding over in a failed attempt to hide her giggling.

"Oh, oh my _gods_ ," she managed.

"Annabeth! Are you hurt? What happened?" Percy stepped forward, taking her face in his hands and carefully examining her for any sign of injury. She looked like she was about to collapse with mirth again, but managed to hold it together.

"You're so _oblivious_ ," she said, grinning at him.

He quirked an eyebrow at her. "Yes, so I've heard."

"Oh my gods," she giggled again.

"What?"

She noticed the look on his face and stopped once more. "Oh, no, babe, I'm not laughing at you. Well, maybe a bit. But the girl in the restaurant! The one in the purple dress!" She stifled another bout of laughter with a hand over her mouth.

Percy thought back momentarily. There had been a girl, about their age, sitting at a table with what had seemed to be her family. Nothing she had done was particularly funny, that he could remember.

"She took a stalker shot of you!" Annabeth laughed.

"What?" he said. "What are you talking about?"

Annabeth gave him a slightly pitying look, before placing both her hands on his shoulders. "Okay, so before I tell you this, do remember that I love you for your personality and you are an amazing person inside too, blah blah, but Percy? You're _really_ fucking hot." She smiled up at him, but it was less _this is hilarious_ than her manic grin from before. "So, this random girl thought you were hot enough to take a creep shot of to send to her friends or something, but she left the flash on her phone on, so it was really, painfully, extraordinarily obvious."

"Huh," was all he could manage. "Uh. That's flattering?"

"You're adorable," said Annabeth, but her grin had faded. Instead, she bit at her lower lip for a moment before leaning forwards to kiss him. He responded automatically, spinning them around so she was pressed against the bricks just as she twisted one hand into his hair. Percy ran a thumb over her cheekbone gently before fisting his hand into her hair, tugging gently on the loose strands. Her dress was held up by a high collar, and he slipped his hand under the edge, running fingers across her pulse.

She gasped, just enough for them to realise they were in an alley in Manhattan, making out while there were monsters a half block off, and Percy pulled away with one last kiss just on the corner of her mouth.

"For what it's worth," said Annabeth, her voice breathless. "If I saw you, and I wasn't dating you, I'd probably take a photo too."

* * *

The next time, Percy was perched on a stool in a Mexican cafe, courtesy of Tristan McLean. Piper has wheedled and begged her way into making her father let them jet down to Cozumel for a long weekend. When this had become his life, he wasn't sure, but he wasn't about to complain- even though he had nearly singlehandedly been responsible for a plane crash when it became uncomfortably obvious Zeus was _very_ aware that Percy was not where he was supposed to be.

He idly kicked his legs against the faux-gold footbar on the stool, leaning on the table. Around the high top table were Piper, Annabeth, and Hazel. The others had either stayed at the hotel or were in the small downtown area. The rest of the cafe was rather empty, with only two other tables occupied by other American tourists. Percy sighed into the tall vanilla milkshake that was resting in front of him, exhausted from the long flight from a private airfield in upstate New York.

Annabeth leaned over and gently carded a hand through his hair while he squinted unhappily against the bright sun pouring through the window. Dust motes danced through the air, golden in the rays.

"Okay, this vacation is officially for sleeping only," he mumbled through a sip of milkshake. Piper smiled brightly at him. He knew she had a whole itinerary of activities planned, for the girls at least. Through Jason, he had heard that it included spa visits, tanning on the beach, approximately seventy "snorkel tours" (whatever those were), and various other activities. None of them, sadly, were sleeping.

"You okay?" Annabeth asked, scooting her stool closer to him.

"I don't like to have midair negotiations with gods," he grumbled. "I mean, Zeus literally decided to nearly crash the plane in an ugly, massive fireball until I agreed to go fetch some jewelry thing for his latest goddess." Hera would not be pleased when she found out about the whole thing either, and it was entirely likely that they'd be accosted by her on the plane ride back.

Hazel suddenly smiled, halting the brisk tapping of her fingers on the fake granite tabletop. "Why don't I just make it? It's not a big deal."

"You're offering to give Zeus' mistress a cursed necklace?" Percy asked cautiously, peering up from his nearly comatose position with his head on the nice, cool table.

Hazel just smirked.

"Oh, I've corrupted you so well," he said brightly.

Her face fell again, to a look that was much less evil and more normal, innocent Hazel Levesque. "I would- finally, a decent use for my personal brand of evil- but I honestly don't know if I can. I haven't pulled up anything since the last war, purposely or accidentally."

"Fine, Hazel," Percy whined. "I'll just die of exhaustion." All three girls let out soft giggles that seemed to echo in the near empty restaurant, and Percy sat up, doing his best intimidating glare. It had practically no effect, so he went back to drinking his milkshake, which was actually quite good. Rich and creamy, the cold vanilla flavour lingered enough for him to wake up slightly. He ran a hand through his hair and just as he did, the distinctive click of a phone camera echoed through the space. He quickly turned to the noise, only to find a table of five college age girls blushing furiously, four of them seemingly scolding the one clutching a phone.

"I _told_ you to turn the ringer off!" one of them hissed furiously. They all were intently focused on _not_ looking towards him, so he turned back to his friends.

Only to find them all smothering laughter behind their hands.

"What?" he asked awkwardly. It was horrid with the three of them together; he was _never_ in on the joke.

Annabeth stopped laughing and reached across to grab his hand, giving him the sort of look she only gave when she was about to tease him for something. "Percy, I am so glad sometimes that you are totally oblivious." He sat, confused for a moment, before realizing what she was referring to and turning beet red. Shifting so he could better see the other table, he gave them an awkward little nod, feeling his cheeks heat up even more as they all continued to blush furiously.

"What am I supposed to do?" he whispered to the other girls. Piper gave him an innocent little shrug before slapping a twenty dollar bill on the table and walking out, quickly followed by the other two. Percy sat alone at the table for a moment before scooting out his chair too. It screeched on the linoleum floor and the red in his cheeks only got worse. Without bothering to look back, he hurried to the front door, slipping into the relative safety of the bright, hot sunshine. Of course, Piper and Hazel started laughing again just at the sight of his face, so he flipped them off before continuing down the road.

Before he got more than a couple strides down the pavement, Annabeth swung in beside him. He glanced over at her- she was stony faced, a quick contrast to her laughter in the cafe.

"How angry would Chiron be, do you think, if I committed a multiple homicide?" she asked. Her face was smoothed over into the mask that she wore when angry, but Percy could see the little worry lines in her forehead that indicated it wasn't only pure anger. He gently tugged her off the main path and onto a quiet, rocky beach area with only a few locals napping to disturb the small stretch of white sand. As soon as they were sufficiently out of sight of any bystanders, Percy spun Annabeth so they were facing each other, letting her lean against the side of an abandoned, half built building. In the bright light, everything about her sparkled, from the ends of her hair to the glossy polish on her nails (They'd had a _lot_ of time on the plane).

"Talk to me," he said, his tone urgent but soft. She cast a glare over his shoulder, back towards the restaurant.

"It's so rude," she grumbled, making eye contact with him. Her grey eyes were stony and dark, even in the sunshine. "Taking pictures of random people, without consent." She broke off, the anger slipping away, but the little lines of worry remained.

"And?" he prompted, sliding down to sit in the hot sand and lean against the same building. She slipped down next to him, tucking herself close to his side, which he took as approval to wrap an arm over her shoulders. Annabeth leaned closer, stretching out her long, tanned legs in the sand and muffling her next words into his chest.

"I'm… I'm _jealous_ ," she managed to grit out. "And it's perfectly, utterly ridiculous, because I love you and I trust you and I know you would never, ever do anything, but still." Percy paused for a moment. It was rare for his girlfriend to admit to any moment of weakness, or anything that wasn't precise perfection, even with him. At a bit of a loss, he leaned over to press a kiss to the crown of her hair.

After a moment of thought, he responded. "For what it's worth, I really doubt anyone else would be willing to put up with me, and I love you, and I'd never do anything to hurt you. I won't let anything bad happen to us." Annabeth was quiet, but then she turned just enough to meet his gaze.

"That's one hell of a promise to make." Her tone was even, and the worry lines gone, but there was still some lingering emotion that he could discern, even though he doubted anyone else would.

"Yeah, well, I like trying for the impossible," Percy said, so quietly that the sounds of the waves breaking nearly smothered the words.

Finally, she smiled. "Good, 'cause I do, too."

* * *

He was standing next to a bookshop in the mall near Christmastime, juggling armloads of packages that he had picked up as presents. Normally Percy was quite an organized gift-giver, but just the other day his planned shopping had been interrupted by yet another sociopathic monster. That time, it had been a fire-breathing chimera, straight from the depths of Tartarus, which had a proclivity for appearing as a rabid deer through the mist. He couldn't have explained if he tried. The attack meant that he was now cramming his shopping in two days before Christmas, because _of course_ his Greek life had to interfere in one of the few moments he tried for just a normal one. Tucking his wallet into a back pocket, he glanced around the mall. It was flooded with holiday shoppers and there was no efficient way to make it across the hall to the next store he needed to visit. Just as he had made up his mind to simply barge through with lots of apologies, a girl about his age with dark hair crashed into him.

"Oh!" she exclaimed, high pitched. "Sorry!"

"No problem," Percy said with a wide smile. "Need a hand?"

The girl shook her head, shifting the piles of bags she had in her right hand and readjusting the strap of her red purse. "No, sorry, I'm good!" She made to hurry away, leaving Percy to wobble his own load into a more comfortable position, before suddenly turning back.

"Uh, I was just wondering, could I have your number?" She wasn't blushing, but she didn't quite meet his eyes as she spoke. He raised his eyebrows, feeling a blush creep up his own cheeks.

"Ah- sorry," Percy said. "I have a girlfriend." The girl's hopeful smile fell to a wry smirk instead, and she nodded.

"Figures. The best ones always do."

* * *

 _Inspiration: a really cute Tumblr headcanon from dademigods. Just a bit of quick writing while on holiday._


End file.
